Jello Pumpkins

Halloween is almost here and kids are all around having fun being in costumes and collecting candies. Going to pumpkin patches is also fun to pick different sized pumpkins plus taking some gorgeous photos for your FB or IG or just to share with your family ✌️We were lucky to go to a pumpkin patch at a fall festival hosted by Mr. R’s ( That’s a decent short name I could think of for my husband) company. R&M had so much fun picking some nice pumpkins. So I wanted to do a pretend pumpkin patch and this sensory bin was born

I am not a huge fan of making sensory bins with food items. Basically food is food right.. But fortunately or unfortunately they make a perfect base for sensory bins with great textures. So I prefer to use food items that can be reused such as beans, lentils etc. At times I do bins using cornflour cocoa powder etc and have to agree they are just amazing. I try to kill the guilt by using expired foods mostly. So today I used orange flavored Jello I got last year to make a pumpkin picking bin.

We also found the book ‘ Ten orange pumpkins ‘ by Stephen Sayage in Halloween shelf and thought it will be perfect for this activity. It’s a good book to practice counting down while having fun reading.

Let’s jump right into the making of bin!

Materials needed:

Jello orange flavor

Mini pumpkin candy

Pumpkin shape Ice cube tray( dollar tree)

Tongs and Scoopers

Make Jello according to packaging instructions. I made mine in a trofast bin since I plan to use the Ikea Flisat table. You can use any type trays but make sure there’s jello just enough to cover the pumpkin candies once placed. Spread the candies evenly on the tray and keep it in fridge to cool down and get firm. It usually takes about 4 hrs.

Note: Use it right away after firming else the candies will get dissolved and may tend to break.

We had some time in the morning on a school day and I set it out for the kids to play. They jumped into work right away picking the pumpkins using tongs. R was exclaiming all the while how sticky and slimy it is. The pumpkins broke as he picked it out since I kept in fridge overnight. Still kids didn’t mind though!! It’s my perfectionist mind that was not happy about it.

I asked them to put the pumpkins in the ice cube tray and we counted them. It’s a good way to practice one to one correspondence for toddlers. It also makes a great ten frame for older kids to help learn many math facts.

Then they had their share of free play. R collected Jello and pumpkins as much as he could in the glass jar. M tried the scoopers to get some jello in another jar and later dumped them all in. Filling and dumping is her preferred activity these days. A great way to exercise those fine motor muscles.

I would give this activity a 3 star because it didn’t get their attention much longer. And cleaning up this bin was a hassle( think all those jello stuck on carpets) plus the wastage of resources. But hey sensory bin is all about messy play and the more textures they are exposed to, the better. So it’s an yay! for the Jello pumpkins 🎃